Madagascar Plague Outbreak Is Worrying Officials

More than 100 people are dead in Madagascar.

While plague is now a regular occurrence in Madagascar, experts are growing worried over this year's epidemic, which has killed 124 people since August alone. Reuters reports that an outbreak has hit the island's two main cities the hardest and has caused over 1,000 cases since August; two-thirds of those cases are of the pneumonic plague, which Reuters notes is the "deadliest form of the disease."

The outbreak started earlier than it usually does, and it has hit urban areas rather than the typical rural areas. Additionally, the deaths are rapidly rising. Reuters reports that a report from the World Health Organization said the death toll was at 94 just last week. "The total number of cases (1,192) is already three times higher than the average annual total," the National Office for Risk and Disaster said in a report on Wednesday, according to Reuters.

The report also said that only $3 million has been raised to counter the epidemic — less a third of the necessary $9.5 million, according to Reuters. That said, according to ABSCBN News, officials say that the infection rate has been slowing down. "There is a decrease in the number of people admitted to the hospital [and] an increase in cured patients who leave [the] hospital," ministry official Manitra Rakotoarivony told national radio, ABSCBN reports.

According to Al Jazeera, the symptoms of the plague are much like the flu, with fever, chills, body aches, nausea, and vomiting. While the majority of the cases are the most lethal form — pneumonic, which has a fatality rate of 100% and can kill within just 24 hours — there are two other strains, bubonic and septicemic. Approximately 1 out of every 10 cases of bubonic plague progress to pneumonic. Currently, the two largest cities in Madagascar — Antananarivo and Toamasina, the former being the nation's capital — bear the brunt of the infection at 55% of cases.